Plastic-coated wood or laminated panels, which are used, for example, in the production of furniture, usually have a structure embossed in their surfaces. The embossing of such a structure occurs by means of large-format press plates or endless bands. The press plates are made from either steel sheet or brass sheet that carries a surface structure, or of steel plate having a relatively soft copper or brass layer into which the surface structure is formed and that is subsequently hard-chrome plated. Such press plates are mounted in a pressing machine with which the plastic-coated furniture panels and the like are manufactured. For continuous production, presses are also known that have two revolving endless bands between which the material is pressed into panels. In both designs, the surfaces facing the panels have a structure which is embossed in the pressing laminate. Since surface flaws in the press plate or the endless band would also be embossed in the panel, flawless press plates or endless bands are needed for producing the wooden or laminated panels. However, it is not feasible to prevent all damage to the surfaces of the press plates or endless bands when used in pressing machines, or the occurrence of cracks, imprints, shrinkage cavities, and the like. Surface flaws of this type are generally very small and cover areas between 1 mm.sup.2 and 14 mm.sup.2. The flaws may occur in the steel sheet, in the structured metal coating applied to the sheets, in the hard-chrome layer, or in all layers.
Repair during the machining of the press plates or endless bands, and the touch-up of damaged press plates or bands while in the pressing machine, is difficult and expensive, or may not even be possible. If the damage involves steel sheets that have not yet been coated, flaws can be repaired with one or more etching processes. However, the resulting repair costs are about equal to or greater than the costs of new press plates or bands. Flaws that extend through the hard-chrome plating and the copper or brass layer into the steel sheet can be touched-up by completely stripping off the chromium plating and the copper or brass layer over the entire surface area and then re-applying the copper or brass and the chrome over the smoothed surface. However, this is too difficult and expensive.
Relatively large damaged surface areas of about 1 cm.sup.2 and greater can be repaired using the so-called "tampon-galvanization" technique, in which, as is known, for example, from the LPW Handbook of Galvanization, Vol. 1, 1988, p. 472, an anode is connected to a tampon, which is impregnated with electrolyte. The tampon is constantly replenished with fresh electrolyte and must be constantly and vigorously moved. However, this approach does not lend itself to repairing small flaw areas between 1 mm.sup.2 and 14 mm.sup.2.